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Sunday, July 19, 2015

Reading, reading, reading. Now that I can see fairly well again, I've been gorging on books. My speed is way down because of the vision problems but I'm still reveling in story.

Here's what I've read so far this month.

Orbiting Jupiter will be out in November and is not to be missed. It is a heart wrenching and heart warming story of a fourteen-year old father and foster brother (yes, a kid who is fourteen years old, in foster care, and has a child) that has gone to the top of my best books of 2015 list.

The Gilded Hour is historical fiction featuring female cousins, both physicians, in the 1880s. My review is in Booklist.

Dark Orbit is by a new to me but by no means new author who is accomplished at telling the kind of "what if" tale that made me a fan of science fiction in the first place. The depiction of a society that has no visual references is fascinating.

I loved Queen of the Tearling last year, and really enjoyed the direction this sequel/prequel interwoven story takes.

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things is an enjoyable and nuanced teen romance with real world issues. It's one I would have nominated were I currently serving on the Best Fiction for Young Adults committee.

While I've loved some of Kim Stanley Robinson's other books and have repeatedly referred to them, Aurora, a book I can definitely recommend to readers of hard SF, just didn't captivate me. I'm glad I purchased it for my library's collection but I didn't connect with it like I thought I would. I did like that it went in directions I didn't expect. Always a good thing.

Since it has been so long since I've updated here are the books I read last month... some with my eyes and some with my ears.

Enchanted August is enchanting women's fiction and a perfect vacation read. The Darkness Rolling is the first in a great new historical mystery series set in the southwest just after WWII with a mixed race Navajo/Jewish sleuth. MARTians is the quirky kind of unique story that Blythe Woolston does so well and Lair of Dreams is the long awaited sequel to The Diviners, an enticing blend of mystery, horror, and teen romance in a vividly imagined 1920s setting.

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About Me

Diana Tixier Herald, winner of Novelist's 2014 Margaret E. Monroe Award, has been posting book recommendations to the web since 1996. She is the author of several editions of Genreflecting, Teen Genreflecting, Fluent in Fantasy, and Strictly Science Fiction. She is the series editor of the Libraries Unlimited (ABC-CLIO) bestselling Genreflecting series.

Disclaimer

Many of the books I review on this site have been sent to me by publishers, authors, or publicists. I do not receive compensation for the reviews. I only review books I like and can recommend to other readers because I will not waste time reading or reviewing books I do not like. I do not keep review copies after I am done with them. They are passed on to teen reviewers or donated to schools and other non-profit organizations.